Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential - and Endangered

From birth, when babies' fingers instinctively cling to those of adults, their bodies and brains seek an intimate connection - a bond made possible by empathy, the remarkable ability to love and to share the feelings of others. In this unforgettable book, award-winning science journalist Maia Szalavitz and renowned child psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry explain how empathy develops, why it is essential both to human happiness and for a functional society, and how it is threatened in a modern world.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

In The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring - specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neuro feedback, mindfulness techniques, play, yoga, and other therapies.

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Judith Lewis Herman's volume has changed the way we think about and treat traumatic events and trauma victims. Trauma and Recovery brings a new level of understanding to a set of problems usually considered individually. Herman draws on her own cutting-edge research in domestic violence as well as on the vast literature of combat veterans and victims of political terror, to show the parallels between private terrors such as rape and public traumas such as terrorism.

The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients

The culmination of master psychiatrist Dr. Irvin D. Yalom's more than 35 years in clinical practice, The Gift of Therapy is a remarkable and essential guidebook that illustrates through real case studies how patients and therapists alike can get the most out of therapy. The best-selling author of Love's Executioner shares his uniquely fresh approach and the valuable insights he has gained - presented as 85 personal and provocative "tips for beginner therapists".

Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal

The emotional trauma we suffer as children not only shapes our emotional lives as adults but also affects our physical health and overall well-being. Scientists now know on a biochemical level exactly how parents' chronic fights, divorce, death in the family, being bullied or hazed, and growing up with a hypercritical, alcoholic, or mentally ill parent can leave permanent, physical "fingerprints" on our brains.

Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship

Explaining that an impaired capacity for connection to self and to others underlies most psychological and many physiological problems, clinicians Laurence Heller, PhD, and Aline LaPierre, PsyD, introduce the NeuroAffective Relational Model™ (NARM), a unified approach to developmental, attachment, and shock trauma that emphasizes working in the present moment. NARM is a somatically based psychotherapy that helps bring into awareness the parts of self that are disorganized and dysfunctional.

Love's Executioner

The collection of 10 absorbing tales by master psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom uncovers the mysteries, frustrations, pathos, and humor at the heart of the therapeutic encounter. In recounting his patients' dilemmas, Yalom not only gives us a rare and enthralling glimpse into their personal desires and motivations but also tells us his own story as he struggles to reconcile his all-too-human responses with his sensibility as a psychiatrist.

Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain

Between the ages of twelve and twenty-four, the brain changes in important and, at times, challenging ways. In Brainstorm, the renowned psychiatrist and bestselling author of Parenting from the Inside Out, The Whole-Brain Child, and Mindsight, Daniel Siegel busts a number of commonly held myths about adolescence — for example, that it is merely a stage of “immaturity” filled with often “crazy” behavior — to reveal how it is in fact a vital time in our lives in terms of charting the course for the adults we ultimately become.

The Mindful Therapist: A Clinician's Guide to Mindsight and Neural Integration

Research suggests that the presence of the therapist, and how the therapist truly forges a connection with the client in therapy, are the most crucial factors affecting the client’s healing process. An engaged, committed, caring therapist who is mindful of his or her own self - and how that self relates to the client - is the key determinant of how well that client will respond to therapy.

Damaged: The Heartbreaking True Story of a Forgotten Child

Although Jodie is only eight years old, she is violent, aggressive, and has already been through numerous foster families. Her last hope is Cathy Glass. At the Social Services office, Cathy (an experienced foster carer) is pressured into taking Jodie as a new placement. Jodie's challenging behaviour has seen off five carers in four months. Despite her reservations, Cathy decides to take on Jodie to protect her from being placed in an institution.

A Child Called 'It': One Child's Courage to Survive

Dave was in first grade when his unstable alcoholic mother began attacking him. Until he was in fifth grade, she starved, beat, and psychologically ravaged her son. Eventually denying even his identity, Dave's mother called him an "it" instead of using his name. Relentlessly, she drove him to the brink of death before authorities finally stepped in. With faith and hope, Dave grew determined to survive. He also knew that he needed to share his story.

Your toddler throws a tantrum in the middle of a store. Your preschooler refuses to get dressed. Your fifth-grader sulks on the bench instead of playing on the field. Do children conspire to make their parents’ lives endlessly challenging? No - it’s just their developing brain calling the shots! In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the best-selling Mindsight, and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson demystify the meltdowns and aggravation, explaining the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures.

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

Best-selling writer and physician Gabor Maté looks at the epidemic of addictions in our society, tells us why we are so prone to them, and details what is needed to liberate ourselves. Starting with a close view of his drug-addicted patients, Dr. Maté looks at his own history of compulsive behavior, weaving a story of real people who struggle with addiction with the latest research on addiction and the brain. In a bold synthesis of clinical experience, insight and cutting edge scientific findings, Dr. Maté sheds light on this most puzzling of human frailties.

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma

Waking the Tiger offers a new and hopeful vision of trauma. It views the human animal as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity. It asks and answers an intriguing question: Why are animals in the wild, though threatened routinely, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma is revealed.

The Neurobiology of 'We': How Relationships, the Mind, and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are

If you think your brain and mind are one, think again. According to the interpersonal neurobioligy pioneer Daniel J. Siegel, the mind actually emerges out of the interaction between your brain and relationships. Now, with The Neurobiology of "We", Dr. Siegel invites you on a journey to discover this revolutionary new model of human development - one that can positively transform trauma, move you from stress to calm and equanimity, and promote well-being for you, your family, or even your community.

Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive

In this best-selling classic, child psychiatrist and coauthor of The Whole Brain Child, Daniel J. Siegel and early childhood expert Mary Hartzell explore the extent to which our childhood experiences shape the way we parent. Illuminating important research in the field of interpersonal neurobiology, Siegel and Hartzell explain how the parent-child relationship directly affects brain development, and offer parents a step-by-step approach to forming a deeper understanding of their own life stories to help them raise compassionate and resilient children.

Daniel S. says:"This book should be mandatory reading for parents and non-parents."

How to Do Motivational Interviewing: A Guidebook

In this concise book, you will learn how to do Motivational Interviewing (MI), the evidence-based, client-centered counseling approach that has demonstrated effectiveness for a range of psychological, behavioral, and health related issues.

The Lost Boy

Following the tremendous success of Pulitzer Prize nominee A Child Called "It", this book continues the extraordinary tale of author Dave Pelzer's childhood. On the verge of adolescence, Dave is rescued from his terrifyingly abusive, alcoholic mother and made a permanent ward of the court. Then the real journey begins. He is moved from one foster home to another, searching for identity and family.

Getting Past Your Past: Take Control of Your Life With Self-Help Techniques from EMDR Therapy

Whether we've experienced small setbacks or major traumas, we are all influenced by memories and experiences we may not remember or don't fully understand. Getting Past Your Past offers practical procedures that demystify the human condition and empower listeners looking to achieve real change. An easy conversational style, humor, and fascinating real life stories make it simple to understand the brain science behind why we get stuck in various ways and what we can about it.

Letters to a Young Therapist

Mary Pipher's groundbreaking investigation of America's "girl-poisoning culture", Reviving Ophelia, has sold nearly two million copies and established its author as one of the nation's foremost authorities on family issues. In Letters to a Young Therapist, Dr. Pipher shares what she has learned in 30 years as a therapist, helping warring families, alienated adolescents, and harried professionals restore peace and beauty to their lives.

Attachment in Psychotherapy

This eloquent book translates attachment theory and research into an innovative framework that grounds adult psychotherapy in the facts of childhood development. Advancing a model of treatment as transformation through relationship, the author integrates attachment theory with neuroscience, trauma studies, relational psychotherapy, and the psychology of mindfulness.

Beyond Consequences, Logic and Control

This first volume of Beyond Consequences lays out the basics of this revolutionary and simple parenting paradigm. Easy to listen to and filled with practical examples, this book will equip you to start parenting from a place of unconditional love and begin the road to healing for your family. Whether you are parenting your biological, adopted or foster children, the Beyond Consequences relationship model shows how to connect with your children and bring your family peace and healing.

Transforming Trauma: Uncovering the Spiritual Dimension of Healing

In cases of severe trauma, the spiritual dimension of the healing process is often the most mysterious. Transforming Trauma brings internationally renowned teachers Caroline Myss and James Finley together for the first time on audio to explore how a combination of contemplative and clinical practices can dramatically enhance our ability to heal.

Publisher's Summary

What traumatized children can teach us about loss, love, and healing.

What happens when a young child is traumatized? How does terror affect a child's mind---and how can that mind recover? Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry has treated children faced with unimaginable horror: genocide survivors, witnesses to their own parents' murders, children raised in closets and cages, the Branch Davidian children, and victims of family violence. In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, he tells their stories of trauma and transformation. Dr. Perry clearly explains what happens to the brain when children are exposed to extreme stress. He reveals his innovative methods for helping to ease their pain, allowing them to become healthy adults. This deeply informed and moving book dramatically demonstrates that only when we understand the science of the mind can we hope to heal the spirit of even the most wounded child.

This book is a great read for anyone but especially for those who works in a school or health care setting. It paints a vivid picture of why a child may have issues with behavior, learning, language, etc. I have also found it quite helpful in explaining why early childhood development is as a whole very important!!

This is a worthwhile listen for anyone interested in early child development, and how trauma or neglect can lay the early framework for violent criminal behavior later in life. There were definitely some eye-opening revelations, such as how neglect during infancy can lead to actual physical manifestations such as small head size.

After listening to this book I feel like I have a much better understanding of how some child behavioral problems develop, and also a much less judgmental opinion of the parents who raised these kids.

Unfortunately, the author lost a few points with me during the closing remarks when he basically stated that I am a social failure because I live alone. It is not because I am incapable of forming meaningful social relationships that I choose to live alone. It is because I finally grew tired of being used, manipulated, and lied to by my romantic partners and through diligent self-exploration I realized that I am a worthwhile and deserving person in and of myself, without need of another person to "complete me".

I probably would have given this book a higher rating had it not been for this closing insult, although I do realize that it was unintentional. Have a listen, and form your own opinion

What made the experience of listening to The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog the most enjoyable?

the stories and hopefulness of working with damaged children were very interesting. There were too many ripped from the headlines or culture wars references and since the books is over ten years, it was somewhat dated.

I feel grateful to have read this book in my first year as a child and family therapist and school counselor. The author's message is incredibly important and the stories presented both tragic and inspiring.